Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-01-31

| heSSlan. On tne CLOSING nlEnt tnFet
thousand deluded people singing of a de-
lusion to eight thousand deluded hearers.
Yes, this chimera of the Gospel is not
satisfied until it goes on and builds itself
into the most
PERMANENT ARCHITECTURE,
so it seems as if the world is never to get
rid of it. What are some of the finest
buildings in the world? st. Pauls, st.
Peters, the churches of all Christendom.
Yes, this impertinence of the gospel, this
vast delusion is not satisfied until it pro-
jects itself, and in one year gives, contrib
utes, So, 80, 600 to foreign missions, the
work OF which is to make Ounces and fools
on the other side Of the world-people We
have never seen. Deluded doctorS-two
hundred and twenty physicians meeting
week by week in London, in the Union
Medical Prayer Circle, to worship God.
Deluded lawyers-the late Lord Cairns,
the highest legal authrity in England, the
ex-adviser of the throne, spending his vaca-
ton in preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ
to the poor people Of Scotland. Frederick
T. Frelinghuysen, once the Secretary OF
State of the United States, an old-fashioned
evangelical Christian, an elder of the Re-
formed church. John Bright a deluded
Quaker. Henry Wilson, the Vice
President of the United States,
dying deluded Methodist or
Congregationalist. Earl of Kintore
dying deluded Presbyterian. The Canni-
balls in South Sea, the Bushmen in Terra
del Fuego, the wild men of Australia, put
49,. Jo,-,, tha l,na,-ao Of tbair prualty onI
clothing themselves in decent apparel-all
under the power of this delusion. Judson
and D0ty and Abeel and Campbell and
the three thousand missionaries of the
cross turning their backs on home and
civilization and comfort, and going out
amid the squalOr of heatAenism, to relieve
it, to save it, to help it, toiling until they
dropped into their graves, dying with no
earthly comfort about them, and going in
TO graves with no appropriate epitaph,
when they might have lived in this coun-
try, and lived for themselves, and luxGri-
ously, and been at last put into brilliant
sepulchre. What delusiOn
Yea, this delusion of Christian religion
shows itself in the fact that it
GOES To THOSE WHO ARE IN TROUBLE.
Now. it. is bad enough to cheat a man
when he is well, and when he is prosper.
Gus; but this religion comes TO man
when he is sick, and says: "Gou will be
well again after while; you are going into
land where there are no coughs and no
pleurisies and no cOnsumptions and no
languishng; take courage and bear NJ" :"
Yea, this awful chimera of the Gospel
comes to the poor and it says to them:
You are on your way TO vast estates and
to dividends al ways declarable." This de-
lusion of Christianity comes to the berelt,
and it talks of reunion before the throne
and of the cessation of all sorrow. And
then to show that this delusion will stop at
absolutely nothing, it goes to the dying
bed and fills the man with anticipatiOns.
How much better it would he to have him
die without any more hope than swine
aud rats and snakes. That is all. Nothing
more left of him. He will never know
anything again. Shovel him under!
The soul is only superior part of the
body, and when the body disintegrates the
soul disintegrates Annihlation, vacancy,
everlasting blank, oblteratiOn. Why not
present all that beautiful doctrine TO the
dying, instead of coming with this hoax,
this swindle of the Christian religion, and
filling the dying man with anticipations
of another life, until some in the last hour
have clapped their hands, and some have
shouted, and some have sung and some
have been 81 OverwrOught with Joy they
could only look ecstatic. Palace gates
opening, they thought; diamOnded cOro-
nets flashing, hands hcckonins, orchestras
sounding. Little children dying, actually
believing they saw their departed parents,
so that, although the little children had
been so weak and feeble and sick for
weeks, they could not turn on their dying
pillow, at the last, in paroXysm of rap
turc uncomfortable, they sprang TO their
feet, and shouted: Mother, catch me,
am coming
And to show
THE IMMENSELY OF THIS DELUsION,
this awful swindle of the Gospel Of Jesus
Christ, open hospital and bring into
that hospital the death-bcds of great
many Christian people, and take you by
the hand this morning, and walk up and
down the wards of that hospita!, and ask
a few questions | ask: dying Stephen,
what have you to say?" Lord Jesus, re-
ceive my spirit Dying John Wesley,
what have you to say?' ''The best of all
is, God is with us" dying Edward
Payson, what have you to say?" ~ float
in a sea of glory" dying John Brad
ford, what have you to say?' ''If there
be any way OF going to Heaven on horse
back, or in a fiery chariot, it is this. "
dying Neander, what have you to sayT'
81 am going to sleep nOw-good- night. "
Dying Mrs. Florence Foster, what
have you to sy?" "A pilgrim
in the valley, but the mountain
tops are all agleam from peak
to peak" dying Alexander Mather,
what have You TO say?r The Lord who
has taken care of me fifty years, will not
cast me off now; glory bc TO God and to
the Lamb! Amen, amen, amen, amen"
"Dying John Powson, after preaching the
Gospel 80 many years what have you to
say?" "My death-bed is n bcd of roses. "
Dying Doctor Thomas Scott, what have
you to say?" This is heaven begun"
dying soldier in the last war, what have
you to say?" Boys, Am going to the
front" dying telegraph operator on the
battle field Of Virginia, what have you to
say9n The wires are all laid, and the
poles are mp from Stony Point to head
quarters" dying Paul, what have you
to say" 81 am now ready TO be offered,
and the time Of my departure is at hand;
have fought the good fight, have fin
ished my course, have kept the faith.
o, death, where is thy sting: o, grave,
where is thy victory? Thanks be unto
God who givcth MS the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ" o, my
WHAT A GLORIOUS RELIGION!
Submerge me with it, gil my eyes and
ears with it, put it under my dying head
for pill0w-this delusion-spread it over
ME for n canopy, put 1t underneath me for
an outspread wiDg-roll it over NE in
ocean surges ten thousand fathOms deep!
o, if infidelity, and il atheism, and il an
Inhalation are n reality, and the Christian
religion is delusion, give me the delu-
sion!
The strong conclusion of oyery man and
woman in the house is that Christianity
producing such grand results cannot be a
delusion. A lie, cheat, a swindle, an
halIucinafinn cannnt Iaurh such n